The invention is directed at a device and a procedure for the treatment of Alzheimer""s dementia with deoxypeganine and/or a pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salt of deoxypeganine.
Alzheimer""s dementia (Alzheimer""s disease, senile dementia of the Alzheimer type, SDAT, AD, presenile dementia, senile dementia, primary degenerative dementia, PDD) is understood as meaning the clinical manifestation of a disturbance of the most highly developed areas of the brain. More precise descriptions can be gleaned, for example, in L. L. Heston et al., Arch. Gen. Psychiatry, (1981) 1085 or in R. Terry, R. Katzman: xe2x80x9cSenile Dementia of the Alzheimer Type: Defining a Diseasexe2x80x9d in The Neurology of Aging, ed.: R. Katzman, Chapter 3, p. 51.
An exact diagnosis of Alzheimer""s dementia is only possible post mortem by autopsy. For the person skilled in the art, however, it is possible on the basis of typical symptoms (increasing loss of intellectual capabilities and memory loss in the early stage; confusion, loss of the sense of orientation, abnormal sensory liability, depression, anxiety states, lack of motivation, disturbed social behavior, tiredness, weakened driving force, loss of weight etc. in the advanced stage) and in the absence of references to other causes to diagnose Alzheimer""s dementia with high probability.
The cause of Alzheimer""s dementia is still not known even today. Consequently no medicinal or other therapy form exists for the causal treatment of Alzheimer""s dementia.
The patient affected by Alzheimer""s dementia, but particularly also the relatives directly living together with this patient, see this illness as a severe burden because of its inexorably progressive character and because death is undeniably at its end.
Many strategies have therefore been proposed to slow the progression of Alzheimer""s dementia, i.e. to improve the mental (cognitive) capabilities.
The medicinal strategies include the administration of:
psychostimulants such as dihydroergotoxin,
vasodilators such as papaverine, isoxuprine, cyclandelate,
stimulants such as methylphenidate, pentylenetetrazole,
substances for improving the cerebral blood circulation such as naftidofuryl, pentoxifylline, suloctidil, vincamine,
calcium channel blockers such as nimodipine,
nootropic substances such as piracetam, oxiracetam, rolziracetam, pramiracetam, aniracetam, Cl-844, Cl-933,
cholinergic active compounds such as arecoline, physostigmine, RS-86, bethanecol, BM-5,
analogs of ACTH such as ORG 2766,
vasopressins, such as DDAVP, DGAVP
somatostatin, such as L-363,586
serotonin active compounds such as alaproclate, zimelidine,
adrenergic substances such as clonidine,
hormones such as estradiol
but also of vitamins, lecithin, nicotine, tacrine and others.
It is the object of the present invention to make available a device and a procedure by means of which the symptoms of patients having Alzheimer""s dementia are reduced. In particular the cognitive capabilities of these patients should be improved or the progressive character of the decrease in the mental faculties should be slowed. The object of the invention thus consists not in treatment in the classical sense with the objective of cure, but a palliative treatment of the symptoms in order to make possible to the patient a largely independent conduct of life and thus to make the care of the patient easier for the relatives and the nursing staff.
The object is achieved by a device which is capable of delivering the active compound deoxypeganine and/or a pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salt of deoxypeganine to the patient. 
Deoxypeganine is an alkaloid of the empirical formula C11H12N2 having the above structure, which is contained in plants of the Zygophyllaceae family. It is commercially obtainable as an acid addition salt (hydrochloride C11H12N2.HCI.H2O).